.jpeg){kind=link}
Vladimir Ghika
Romanian diplomat and writer
Feast: 16 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 27 March 2013 — Martyrdom recognised (decree list, 2013)
Who they were
Prince Vladimir Ghika was born in Constantinople on 25 December 1873, fifth of six children of a Romanian envoy to the Ottoman court, a grandson of the last prince of Moldavia, and was raised in the Orthodox Church. He studied in Toulouse, graduating in law, and was destined for diplomacy.
He became a Catholic and a diocesan priest. Under the communist regime he was accused of spying for the Vatican, subjected to harsh interrogations and an unjust military trial, and sentenced for high treason. Worn out by suffering and ill-treatment, he died in the infirmary of Jilava prison, near Bucharest, on 16 May 1954, aged eighty.
The miracles
As a martyr, beatified without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A prince who became a Catholic priest and died a martyr in a communist prison at eighty.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Vladimir Ghika
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q3561784 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Vladimir Ghika (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.